It’s the weekend! What better way to get it started than with the latest installment of “Funeral Doom Friday”. This weekly column looks to shed some light onto some of the darkest, most depressing, and discordant metal out there. Funeral Doom stems from the deepest depths of Death-Doom and Dirge music. Each week, the goal is to highlight some of the newest music or rediscover classic works from some of the earliest bands and originators such as Australia’s Mournful Congregation, United States’s Evoken, UK’s Esoteric and the Finnish Thergothon. Feel free to share your opinions and suggestions in the comments!
Finland stands above the rest of the world in Funeral Doom metal. The extreme doom subgenre was born in Kaarina when Thergothon composed their first demo, Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Psothoth and subsequent full-length album, Stream From the Heavens a few years later. Following soon after Thergothon came Skepticism. Years have past and the roster of great Funeral Doom bands grew. Shape of Despair, Profetus emerged, new talents like Arche are beginning to make their case. One band in particular that made a large impact in a (tragically) short time was Riihimäki's Colosseum.
The quartet hails from the same city that the legendary Skepticism calls home. The quartet was born in 2006, releasing a three-song demo that ultimately found its way onto the group's first full-length album, Delirium. Throughout the next four years, Colosseum built a formidable trilogy of albums that married classical music's chord progressions, ambient soundscapes, and the innate heaviness that Funeral Doom carries. With each release came new approaches to the formula. Colosseum constructed three stunning releases from 2006 to 2010. Their following releases, Chapter II: Numquam, in 2009 and, Chapter III: Parasomnia in 2011.
Each chapter more gripping than the last, Colosseum grew in the ranks of funereal greats. Juhani Palomäki's deep, guttural growls emphasized a strong Death Doom presence in the band's music. Palomäki's guitar arrangements were joined by Olli Haaranen's guitars, Sameli Köykkä's drums, and Janne Rämö's bass guitar. Together, the quartet accomplished a special symphonic and atmospheric brand of Funeral Doom. Their time as a band was tragically cut short in 2010 when, following the studio sessions of their third album, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist, Juhani , passed away. The group decided that Juhani's final work needed to see the light and released Parasomnia in the early months of 2011, thus completing the band's body of work.
Though they lasted roughly five years, they managed to craft truly special Funeral Doom that continued Finland's lasting legacy as genre masters. Their albums stand as a testament to brilliant craftsmanship and dedication to excellence. Their three albums are joined together into one video which appears below. I implore you all to set aside a few hours to lay down and revel in the sorrow that Colosseum created. Have a great weekend. Continue to rest in peace, Juhani.
